Unless you’re one of Vancouver’s Asian music cognoscenti, probably the only names that will come to mind are Ravi Shankar and (less likely) his daughter Anoushka, who have successfully accessed the mechanisms of global hype thanks in no small part to the father’s association with the Beatles in the late ’60s.

Both play the Orpheum Saturday in a concert sponsored by Caravan World Rhythms.

Dynasties are as potent in the arts as they are in politics. Ravi Shankar can point to two rather different scions, both seriously involved in the world of music. Anoushka follows most closely in his footsteps; her half-sister, pop luminary Norah Jones, has chosen quite a different path to fame and fortune.

Both Ravi and Anoushka are well known to Vancouver audiences, first playing here as a duo in 2005 for a sell-out crowd at the Orpheum. The following year Anoushka visited on her own with her Rise tour. In advance of that performance, I was able to chat with her about the privilege and responsibility that come with being part of the Shankar clan; with articulate candour she remarked that it was interesting to observe what she called “the celebrity phenomenon” up close as a kid.

Anoushka characterized her father as “an incredibly good teacher, equally good as a performer and a teacher — which is extremely rare. He was systematic and methodical, and yet demanding and sympathetic. He was definitely a disciplinarian, with high expectations.” Even so, her lessons “were always about loving music — and having fun.”

Anoushka has had to accept at least a modicum of criticism from purists of various stripes who can’t seem to accept her mercurial ability to switch from classical to pop, Indian to western, performer to composer. Of course, there have been times when her father’s mission to bring Indian music to the wider world has also raised eyebrows.

Not very many musicians who performed at Woodstock in 1969 are still touring. Now a great-grandfather, Ravi first attracted attention outside of Indian classical music circles through an early tour of the Soviet Union and his plangent film scores for the late Satayajit Ray’s celebrated Apu trilogy (1955–59).

Despite his association with the pop world, Shankar senior has always seen himself as a spokesperson for Indian classical music, and deplored the superficiality of Western appropriations of Indian culture and philosophy. And there’s a hard truth here: Indian classical music is complex and demanding, just like the Western European classical tradition. Standards must be maintained and connoisseurship comes with years, not hours, of commitment. Those who would popularize a great art tradition have to walk a fine line.

“If I go back in time to when I was 20,” says Shankar on his website (www.ravishankar.org), “and think about the dream and vision of what I had then for Indian classical music as a young aspiring musician, I have to admit that even though I have achieved more than I have ever dreamed of personally, I am disturbed to see the plight of it today in India.”

Shankar is a true pioneer, someone who saw early that the art of music would go global. And if where we are at the moment isn’t necessarily where he expected to be, he remains sanguine about his life and work.

“I feel lucky and blessed that even today, after being on the stage for over seven decades,” he says. “I perform to sold-out audiences, and I am overwhelmed by the way I am received by my admirers. And all this when I perform our Indian classical music!”

Special to the Sun

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